There were a few bumps in the road but why dwell on them? I thought season five had some of the best writing in the show’s entire run. It also had the show that hooked me to the show in the first place. One night several months ago night when I was out of town and watching more TV than I usually do, I stumbled upon two scenes that grabbed my attention and made me say, “I’ve got to check this show out.”

Those two scenes were in the show titled Swerve and involved Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) being late for a game, followed by a confrontation of a father (Cress Williams) with a drug dealer. Powerful stuff written by Ron Fitzgerald. (I know much of FNL was written by a team of writers, but Fitzgerald is the one credited on this episode.) Fitzgerald joined Friday Night Lights as a producer in season four. He also has producing and writing credits on Weeds and United States of Tara.

I couldn’t find much info about Fitzgerald, but he has a long-time involvement with the Montana Repertory Theatre, and just this past summer gave a workshop in Missoula titled, Write for T.V. (If there’s a recording of this I hope someone will let me know it exists.) He attended The Juilliard School on a Playwriting Fellowship and his plays include Cyclone, Parts Unknown, The River, The Dairies of Adam and Eve, Hair of the Dog ,Safe, So this is Love and I want TO Bleed, Turbulent. He received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from Columbia University.

Here’s what one reviewer wrote about Fitzgerald’s play Safe, “The reason to see this play—and it is a big reason—is the characters.”

Ahhh, now I’m starting to realize the deep of talent behind just the two scenes that hooked me onto this show.

Granted not all of the episodes of Friday Night Lights were touchdowns (I’m not sure I would have made it through season 2 if I had been watching it weekly when the show first aired), but I just delighted in the moments of grace when the entire cast and crew nailed it. And there are a lot of those moments.

Again congrats and thanks to all the Emmy-nominated (Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series) writers of Friday Night Lights Season 5: Bridget Carpenter, Kerry Ehrin, Ron Fitzgerald, Etan Frankel, Monica Henderson, David Hudgins, Rolin Jones, Jason Katims, Patrick Massett, Derek Santos Olson, John Zinman. Back in August, FNL was named by The Television Critics Association as the Program of the Year for 2011.

* According to Montana Rep Website, “The mission of The Missoula Colony is to foster great writing for the next generation of theatre and film in an atmosphere of generosity, creative fervor, breathtaking beauty, and laughter.”

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[…] In light of Connie Britton stirring up more rumors of a movie version of TV show Friday Night Lights, yesterday I completed the final episode of the TV series. I blazed through the full five seasons in just a couple of month. In classic screenwriting terms the TV series had a strong start, a great mid-point twist (at the end […] Original Source… […]

have a 105 page drama/action screenplay that i have written. looking for someone who would be interested in shooting it. if you know of anyone who is looking for material to work with please e-mail me grindle_philip@yahoo.com

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Statistically, in my own case, I suppose half of the screenplays I’ve written have actually seen production. And I am being dead honest when I tell you this: I have absolutely no more idea as to why some of them happened than why some of them didn’t. Of course it’s more than possible that my […]